


(Life Can Do) Terrible Things

by junebug13669



Series: I Will Follow You Into The Dark [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: BAMF Pack Mom Stiles Stilinski, Canon-Typical Violence, Dark Stiles, F/M, Hurt Pack, I am learning Archaic Latin for this series. I don't even know., M/M, Magick Stiles, Pack, Pack Dynamics, Puppy Piles, Slow Burn, pre-Sterek - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-09
Updated: 2013-01-17
Packaged: 2017-11-24 07:16:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/631838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junebug13669/pseuds/junebug13669
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Junior Year for the wolf pack of Beacon Hills, CA! Unfortunately, in this universe, that means danger, destruction and bodily harm. Add new students Aiden and Ethan Whelan and CoraLee Smith into the mix and there's not enough Adderall in the world that can make this SNAFU okay again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Story title comes from the song 'Terrible Things' by Mayday Parade. Series title comes from the song 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark' by Death Cab For Cutie.

_Gråt inte på min grav - jag är inte där_  
 _Jag är i solens reflexion i havet_  
 _Jag är i vindens lek väldigt kornfälten_  
 _Jag är i höstens milda regn_  
 _Jag är i Vintergatans snöre av stjärnor_  
 _Och när på en tidig morgon du awakes av fågels sång_  
 _Det är min röst som du är höra_  
 _Gråter inte så på min grav - vi ska möta igen_

  
"Do not weep at my grave - I am not there  
I am in the sun's reflection in the sea  
I am in the wind's play above the grain fields  
I am in the autumn's gentle rain  
I am in the Milky Way's string of stars  
And when on an early morning you are awakened by bird's song  
It is my voice that you are hearing  
So do not weep at my grave - we shall meet again."  
-Mary Elizabeth Frye, 1932, Loose Swedish translation of Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

 

Prologue

In various mythologies, it is believed that souls are really two halves of a whole. The legend goes that human souls used to have four arms, four legs and two heads, and Zeus, terrified of their power, split them all in two, spreading them over the earth and leaving them to search for the other half of themselves for the remainder of their days.

  
In 1901, in Haverhill, Massachusetts, a man by the name Doctor Duncan MacDougall decided to measure the weight of the soul.

But first...what is the soul? Why should it hold weight? What is it about the soul that brings about the question of itself? Is it corporeal and held within us like a chained beast or is it vaporous, with the ability to leave at the time it so chooses?  
In many cultures, the soul is depicted as the thing that keeps us alive, the presence inside our bodies that makes up who and what we are as a person.

In an episode of the television show _Supernatural_ , in the third season, a character named Ruby-who was at that point shown to be a demon-revealed to one of the lead characters that she remembered being human. She at one point explained that she was once a human witch whose soul was dragged to hell and became a demon, instilling in the Supernatural mythology that demons were actually once human souls corrupted by time spent in Hell.

  
In the television shows _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and _Angel_ , the vampires were hunted for being evil because once they became a vampire, their soul dissipated, leaving only the flesh body. The body was perfectly preserved as it had been when it died and a malicious spirit would overtake the body, making it walk and talk like it had when it was ensouled. The vampire Angelus was cursed with a soul and chose instead to wander the earth, trying to repay the pain and suffering that he had caused as an evil creature. The two parts of him-the spirit and the soul-were constantly at war with one another, indicating that they were, in fact, two seperate entities.

  
Throughout the years, the soul of a person has always been depicted as an entity not of the body yet not seperate of the body. People speak of out of body experiences during times of trial, such as a panic attack or a near death experience, and people also speak of having aches so deep inside them their soul feels like it's been shredded or a piece has been cut out.

But, Doctor MacDougall was a scientist that wanted proof of the soul and so he gave it the property of weight. His theory of the the weight of the soul has been contradicted over the years and most likely proven to be false but it is still an interesting theory.

Doctor MacDougall weighed six dying patients, during and through their deaths, to discover that when the person in question was finally pronounced dead, their body weight decreased by twenty one grams. The six patients, and their weights had the following happen:

  
Two tests had to be discarded: in one the scale wasn't adjusted properly and the other, the patient died before the doctor could adjust the scale properly.

Two tests were proven false: two of the patients lost weight at the time of death, but over time, the weight was regained, thus making the tests useless.

One test was a bizarre incident: one of the patients lost weight at the time of death, gained it back but then proceeded to lose the weight again over and extended period of time.

One test was proven true: one of the patients lost weight at the time of death and nothing else happened. Nothing at all.

So, if nothing else, Doctor MacDougall proved that there is weight loss at the time of death, but whether it is the soul leaving the body or the body simply settling itself into its final sleep, we'll never truly know.

The truth of the matter is this: as humans we are believed to have a soul. The soul animates us, makes us feel emotions both good and bad, makes us who we are as people. 

And sometimes, our souls reach out to other souls, our souls bind other souls together and say, very simply

"Hello. It's so very nice to meet you. I love you."


	2. The White Rabbit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been almost six months since the end of sophomore year and everything is just awkward. Everyone's individual awkward is messing with Stiles' head and Lydia's had enough.

The dawn rose softly, silently, over Beacon Hills, California on the September day that Stiles Stilinski smacked the flat of his hand down on the alarm by his bed and muttered to his father that he would sleep only until the next time his alarm went off in fifteen minutes.

Which was why he was confused when the sun decided that poking him in the eye was the best way to get him out of bed rather than wrapping him in a warm hug like it should have.

"Dad?" Stiles called from the floor, rubbing his head and dragging himself up onto the mattress to glance at the clock.

The clock that said it was a quarter after ten in the morning on the first day of school.

"Crap!" Stiles cursed, scrabbling over his bed and around his room, trying to get dressed as quickly as possible and tripping when he reached the bottom of the stairs. Halfway through breakfast, he realized that he'd forgotten his back pack upstairs and nearly choked on the jellied toast he shoved in his mouth in his hurry. Then, he was halfway to school when something didn't exactly feel right so he glanced at his shoes and realized that he wasn't actually wearing any.

Stiles managed to make it to school just as the bell rang for lunch for the upperclassmen-which included Stiles.

Stiles, however, was not so lucky as to make it to the lunchroom unscathed.

"Mister Stilinski, I see you've finally decided to grace us with your presence."

Stiles cursed internally as he plastered on as real a smile as he could fake and turned towards Mister Harris.

"Mister Harris. Good to see you, sir." he said with his usual teacher-directed snark. "My alarm failed to go off, you see? And my dad had already left for his shift so he wasn't exactly around to shake me from my slumber, which everyone would have appreciated, I'm pretty sure. And-"

"Mister Stilinski, my inner teacher is simply crying out for me to give you detention until we are both old and gray-"  
Stiles' shoulders fell at the thought of getting detention until kingdom come. Which, given his supernatural inclination, may not be that far away come to think of it.

"- _however_. Being that it is the first day of class and I would rather rip out my own vocal chords than listen to you continue to come up with excuses as to why you're late, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to let it pass this once. Have a prompt day, Mister Stilinski."

Stiles stared, jaw on the floor, as Harris smirked his smug little smirk, turned on his heel and walked in the opposite direction, headed for the teacher's lounge and his lunch.

"Dude! You look like you're trying to catch flies." a voice pulled him out of his shock, shortly followed by a smack to the underside of his chin. He turned his head to see Scott standing there with a questioning look on his face and glanced back in the direction Harris had gone.

"Scott, call Derek. I think Harris is possessed." Stiles said as calmly as possible, scrabbling at his bag to find his phone. "Seriously, though. The guy reprimanded me for being late and didn't give me detention. _He just walked away. Scott, I can't find my phone, call Derek!_ "

Scott's hand on his wrist stopped his jerky movements and dragged him along to the lunchroom, where Scott dragged him over to a table that their friends currently sat at.

As Stiles dropped into the seat next to Scott, Lydia's left eyebrow raised itself in question as she brought the fork of veggie pizza to her mouth and began to chew slowly.

"His alarm didn't go off, Lydia. It's not the end of the world." Scott huffed and Lydia turned her gaze on him as Isaac slid into the seat beside her.

"I've already had three classes in which I've been assigned menial task work, Scott. Stiles is in two of them, one of them is Harris and why aren't you in detention right now?" Lydia asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at Stiles, whose mouth was opening and closing like a fish out of water.

Stiles was saved from answering when Allison approached the table and sat gingerly, effectively causing the conversation to trickle off into silence as everybody didn't know how to begin.

Allison tried to look anywhere but at Scott who was too busy discovering a cure for cancer in his applesauce while Isaac couldn't decide whether to look at Scott or look at his lunch, causing him to drip both pizza sauce and soda either down his shirt or in his lap. Stiles was crinkling his bag lunch as he sought his much desired peanut butter and sweet pickle sandwich(which sounds gross but is rather tasty) and Lydia just kept looking from friend to friend until she couldn't take the silence any longer.

Slamming her hands flat on the table top, Lydia made everyone at the table jump and look at her in question.

"Okay, you know what? That is it. The last straw. The call to arms. Batten down the hatches." Lydia hissed. Allison was staring, Scott looked wary, Stiles looked scared and Isaac had slid his chair back a few inches when Lydia had smacked the table. "When did I become the normal one? I mean, barring that I was pretty normal to begin with but everything has changed and I am no longer the spectacular human that I was. I call pack meeting immediately after school at my house."

Scott and Isaac began to protest as Allison slid further down in her chair, burying her face in her hands with a mutter but Lydia cut them all off with a wave of her hand.

"My parents won't be home until after midnight, I have enough food and drink to assuage even Scott's bottomless stomach-"

"Hey!" Scott protested and was silenced by a sharp glance from Lydia.

"-and you all can spend the night. We have enough guest rooms to put up the entire lacrosse team, all fully furnished and clean. Then we can all carpool to school the next morning and, if need be, reconvene somewhere else to finish our talks. So, pack meeting after school. Go home, pack two days worth of clothing and anything else you deem absolutely necessary and then get your ass to my house because if you aren't there I will _find you_. And I will drag you bodily to my house by your hair along the longest possible route on foot."

And with that, Lydia pushed herself away from the table, slung her Louis Vuitton over her arm, dumped her tray in the bin and, heels clicking furiously, stalked from the lunch room.

Allison muttered something into her hands before pushing away from the table herself and fleeing in the opposite direction so fast she forgot her messenger bag hanging over the back of the chair.

"Well that went well." Stiles tried cheerfully, earning twin glares from Isaac and Scott until the bell signaling the end of lunch rang.

"I guess I'll take this with me. We share our next class anyways and knowing Allison she's probably already out of her mind cause she can't find it." Scott sighed, dumping his lunch in the bin and swinging Allison's bag over his shoulder, shuffling off to his next class and leaving Isaac and Stiles to walk to History together in awkward silence.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

 

History class was relatively normal for about fifteen minutes or so. 

That's when Ethan Whelan appeared in class, knocking on the doorframe firmly with a grin on his lips and laughter in his eyes.

"Can I help you, young man?" the history teacher asked, adjusting her glasses from where they'd slid down her nose.

"Is this Missus Carmel's History class?" the young man asked with a bit of an accent. "I just transferred to Beacon Hills today, and I'm not quite positive where everything is yet."

"Your name?" she asked, flipping open her class register and obviously trying to find something without success. "Strange. I haven't gotten any memos in my book here."

"Miss Morell gave me a slip?" Ethan queried, approaching her desk and pulling the slip from seemingly nowhere. "She asked me to have you sign it and bring it back at the end of the day. Also, I was told to find a, uh...a stiles? I'm still not quite sure what that is either."

"Ah! Mister Stilinski, if you'd like to come up here please."

Stiles groaned internally and pushed his chair away from the desk with a screech before approaching the desk in the front of the room, cheeks slightly pink with embarassment.

"Sorry." he muttered, toeing the ground nervously as he took in Ethan. 

Admittedly, the boy was hot-regardless of whether or not Stiles was into guys, he noticed that Ethan was hot. Tan skin pulled taut against a muscular chest and lithe-looking limbs, his legs were a bit longer than Stiles', giving him a few inches height difference, and Stiles wondered if he made it a habit to chew his nails or it was just unconscious. The slightly rounded yet defined jaw bone held a genuine smile and bright brown eyes that looked at Stiles questioningly. Top that off with the short brown hair, the leather jacket he wore like a second skin and the worn blue jeans that hugged his muscled legs and Ethan Whelan was hot.

Stiles thought he saw smoke curling from the boy's head and blinked when he realized that Ethan was speaking.

"Sorry, what?" he asked, prompting a giggle from other students in the room.

"Stop." Missus Carmel said in annoyance and the giggling stopped almost immediately.

"You are Stiles, then?" Ethan asked, eyebrows raising in question. 

"Yep, that's me. Stiles is me." Stiles blurted and nearly punched Ethan in the gut he stuck his hand out to shake so quickly. Ethan took a step back quickly to avoid it. "Sorry."

"So quick to apologize to strangers. It's lovely to meet you, Stiles. I hope we'll get along well. I was told to ask you to show me around the school." Ethan said, taking his slip back from Missus Carmel and following Stiles back to his seat with Isaac.

"I guess pull up a desk then? Ethan, this is Isaac Lahey. Isaac this is Ethan Whelan. He's new." Stiles smacked Isaac's arm at the smirk the younger boy was giving him and tried not to groan as his hand met what felt like solid rock. 

"Dude, that is _so_ not fair." he muttered, shaking his hand in pain as he turned back to Ethan. "So, Ethan, interesting accent. Where you from?"

"My family is originally from Ireland but we immigrated to the United States when I was a child. I was adopted when I was thirteen into a loving family from New York. My father has his hands full but my older sister keeps an eye out for me." Ethan explained, pulling out a pen and glancing at Stiles' copy of the textbook before beginning to scribble notes in a tiny precise script in his notebook.

"Wow, Hermione, take it easy." Stiles cried, grabbing Ethan's wrist gently. "No need to transcribe it verbatim."

"I prefer to take detailed notes-it helps me to organize them properly in my head." Ethan explained, tugging his wrist from Stiles' hand gently and resuming his notes quietly.

"Whatever, dude." Stiles scoffed playfully and Isaac let out a snort of laughter that resulted in Stiles throwing a pencil at his head. Which he caught. " _So not fair_." Stiles muttered, turning back to his own work and disappearing into the world of school.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Stiles was the second to arrive at Lydia's that night, preceded only by Allison. 

Scott said he'd swing by Isaac's place and pick him up before grabbing a couple of movies for the group to watch once they'd finished discussing everything they needed to discuss.

Stiles hoped that tonight wouldn't be nearly as painful as he thought it was going to be but he doubted it.

He sat in his idling Jeep in Lydia's driveway, staring up at her house until a knock on the window pulled him out of his thoughts. He glanced over to see Allison smiling gently at him.

"You gonna come inside or do you want to stay out here all night? I know you're trying to grow your hair out a bit and I wouldn't want Lydia to pull out a chunk of it." she said once he'd rolled the window down, reaching out and running a hand through his longer hair. "It's such a pretty color, too. Looks handsome on you."

Stiles nearly purred at the sensation of Allison running her nails over his scalp.

"Stiles? Allison?" Lydia's voice broke the silence and Allison smacked her hand on the window lip in trying to pull it away from Stiles so fast and Stiles was left with a cold feeling. They both glanced at the redhead standing in the drive like deer caught in the headlights. She rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Oh, _please_. You two? Don't insult me."

"Hey!" Stiles exclaimed as the same time that Allison snapped "We could be!"

Lydia huffed and crossed her arms, tapping one of her feet impatiently.

"Well, we _could_." Allison muttered and Lydia rolled her eyes again.

"You-" she replied, pointing a soft pink clawed finger at Allison, "-are still way too in love with Scott to even _think_ about going for anyone, much less his best friend. And you-" she continued, pointing the claw at Stiles, who shrank back into his seat, "-are too infatuated by someone who has no idea that you exist. Even if you don't know it yet. You'll look back on this moment and then I can say that I called it before anyone else!" she finished with a self satisfied look. "Now get inside."

The Jeep died with a squeal as Stiles yanked the keys from the ignition and grabbed his overnight bag and his backpack, following Allison into the house.

"I still can't get over how big your house is." Stiles said in awe as he made his way down the hall after the girls. They wound up in the rec room and he dumped his bags unceremoniously on the floor.

"Thank you." Lydia said, preening slightly as she waved them to follow her back down the hallway. "We'll pick rooms once everyone gets here but I made soup and the makings for sandwiches in case we wanted something to fortify ourselves."

"Fortify ourselves?" Allison asked in disbelief.

"Tonight is going to be long. And it's going to hurt. There will be tears and probably blood but let's hope Lahey and Scott won't come to that." she explained, turning to speak to Scott and Isaac, who hovered warily in the doorway. "It's so nice of you two to finally join us."

"I couldn't find my hairbrush." Scott said weakly in explanation before disappearing down the hallway towards the rec room. Everyone turned to Isaac, who only shrugged and loped off after his friend.

"His hairbrush." Lydia muttered, before turning to the fridge and pulling out the food she'd mentioned earlier with a flourish, placing it on the counter. "Split-pea, vegetable, bouillabaisse, chili, or gumbo?"

"Bless you." Stiles replied automatically and Lydia's eyes narrowed slightly. "Another thing we need to talk about is everybody's comfort zone and knowledge of different cultures."

"What do you have a list or something?" Stiles joked around a mouthful of sandwich and he was met with silence. "Oh my _god_ , you actually have a _list_."

"I didn't want people to dodge subjects that needed to be discussed." Lydia said, shrugging her shoulders delicately.

"Evil." Stiles muttered, shoving more food into his mouth and heading in the direction of the living room. "Pure evil."

He flopped down on the couch, sinking into it as Scott and Isaac came into the room, snickering at some inside joke, plates in hand piled high with sandwiches and bowls of soup so piping hot, Stiles could see steam rising from the surface. The duo settled themselves beside Stiles on the couch and shoving food into their face as quickly as possible.

Allison appeared at the doorway, noticed Scott and changed direction to sit in the leather chair beside Stiles. Lydia followed shortly, plate piled as high as Scott's, with a bowl of soup balanced on her arm as she gripped a mug of something hot as well.

As soon as she had settled into her own chair, Stiles let out a couple of claps.

"I commend you on your grace, milady." he said, fake swooning back into the couch and Lydia smirked as she began to eat.

"I can still pack away more than you, Stilinski. And I'll probably be able to drink you under the table as well in the future." she snarked back and Scott snorted into his soup.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Two hours and most of the food later, everyone was swiftly heading towards sleep when Lydia decided that it was time to talk.

"Everybody go pick a room upstairs. Now. Reconvene back here at oh-nineteen-thirty. Do not attempt to leave. Do not attempt to hide anywhere. I will find you." Lydia admonished with her hands resting tightly about her waist. When nobody moved, she clapped her hands together twice, breaking the silence of the room with a metaphorical bang. "Come on! Go!" 

With a sweep of her hands and a swirl of lavender-scented shampoo, Lydia turned and marched from the room and everybody scattered.

Scott and Isaac were up the stairs with their stuff before Stiles could blink, thanks to their supernatural speed, leaving Stiles alone with Allison.

"Sometimes, I wonder about those two..." Stiles joked, jabbing his elbow softly into Allison's who simply cocked an eyebrow and followed the werewolves up the stairs quietly. "Oh, come _on_! Where is everybody's sense of humor lately?"

Stiles hefted his luggage over his shoulders and stomped up the stairs, grumbling the whole way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's chapter one! Hope you liked it it was me awkwardly getting into a groove, which I hope is the correct groove. I haven't planned this thing out other than a list of things i want to have happen and will write into this. Hopefully it all works out. I'm going to attempt a trilogy(key word here? Attempt-keep that in mind)
> 
> Also, a big thanks to anybody who read this, bookmarked it, and gave kudos or reviews, thank you so very much! 
> 
> Also to tovelinen-I'm so happy it makes you happy! I hope I got it right-I got most of it from a Wikipedia article(sacrilege, I know!) and an online translator because the Swedish translation was just too pretty to use the English version. I honestly don't know how to pronounce any of the characters in the version, but the translation just struck a chord with the story.

**Author's Note:**

> There's gonna be a story behind this, I swear, I just felt the need to be a bit deep before jumping right into the story. I'm almost done with chapter one and hopefully will be starting on chapter two soon! Yay!


End file.
